Politics
VIDEO: Abdul El-Sayed Gets Grilled By Jesse Watters In Brutal Primetime Interview
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed tangled with Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday in a combative interview covering immigration enforcement, the Iran war and several hot-button cultural issues.
The fireworks on “Jesse Watters Primetime” began when Watters pressed Abdul El-Sayed over his support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
El-Sayed pointed to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which handled federal immigration cases before ICE replaced it in 2003.
“We were able to enforce our immigration policies without shooting people in the face and the back of the head,” El-Sayed said.
Watters pushed back, saying the INS “did the same thing as ICE back then,” before asking how many immigrants without legal status were living in the United States. The two began talking over each other as El-Sayed tried to respond.
“I mean, to your point –– Jesse, Jesse, let me just answer the question,” El-Sayed said. “To your point, we had far fewer under INS. … If you want to do that correlation, we have ICE now and we have far, far more undocumented people. So ICE is clearly not working.”
El-Sayed argued that Michigan voters “are asking me about how they’re going to afford their gas and groceries” rather than focusing on immigration. Watters accused the Democrat of avoiding the question as their clash continued.
The interview later turned to the war with Iran. Watters asked El-Sayed whether he was “glad the ayatollah is dead,” referring to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei was killed during the opening U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that began the conflict in February. El-Sayed said he would “never defend the Iranian regime” but condemned the war.
Abdul El-Sayed defends calling people against Sharia Law white supremacists.
WATTERS: “You said getting rid of Sharia law was white supremacy.”
EL-SAYED: “I don’t begrudge you your right to practice your faith as you choose.” pic.twitter.com/GgcpNixkQt
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 25, 2026
POLL: Will You Support Trump And His Candidates In The Midterms?
“I understand selective memory about history, but we had a JCPOA that was well negotiated, that actually had nuclear nonproliferation far more securely than we have right now after having gone to war for the better part of six months,” he continued, referring to the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal from which President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
“Yeah, I like the fact that the nuclear program is buried under a mountain of rubble,” Watters countered.
“You understand that, like, nuclear material doesn’t just go away because you buried it under a mountain of rubble?” El-Sayed asked back. “You understand they can still go back and bury it out, right?”
Watters said the United States was “watching it from Space Force” and that anyone digging up the nuclear material would go “kaboom.”
Abdul El-Sayed later attempted to draw a contrast with his Republican opponent, Rep. Mike Rogers, who has not appeared on Watters’ show.
El-Sayed accused Rogers of “ducking” a debate and said the Republican was also avoiding Watters’ program.
“Can we all agree that Mike Rogers is a beta?” El-Sayed said, drawing laughter from Watters. “Can we all agree with that? He won’t even come on your show. He’s afraid of getting grilled.”
El-Sayed repeated the “beta” jab several times during the interview.
The Democrat also said Rogers “thinks he’s running against Hasan Piker,” the left-wing Twitch streamer who has raised money and campaigned for El-Sayed.
El-Sayed suggested that appearing on the program amounted to doing Watters “a favor.”
The two also battled over transgender athletes, reparations for descendants of freed slaves, the NFL, and transgender procedures on children that can go as far as genital mutilation.
Holy crap, Abdul El-Sayed said circumcision is similar to sex change operations on minors. pic.twitter.com/U959IcQ90G
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 25, 2026
Watters ended the contentious interview by saying they would “do it again, Abdul.”
POLL: Ilhan Omar Now Claims She’s Broke – Do You Believe Her?
